Album Review: "G I R L" by Pharrell Williams

Welcome back to another CDS Music Chart album review! Today I will be reviewing Pharrell Williams' new album "G I R L", which is set to be released on March 3rd, 2014 in the United States.

I apologize and regret to inform you that my album review for John Legend's Love In the Future has been canceled as of now.

Prolific songwriter, producer and guest artist Pharrell Williams easily dominated 2013 worldwide. He featured on a slew of hit pop and dance records that topped charts, slashed records, sold millions and brought him back to the spotlight. From 2013's summer smash single "Blurred Lines" to 2013's worldwide dance groove "Get Lucky", Pharrell stamped his name everywhere. His first solo single in years, "Happy", was nominated for an Oscar in 2014 and featured in one of 2013's biggest movies, Despicable Me 2 ($970 million at the box office). "G I R L" is Pharrell's second studio album and first since 2006's In My Mind.

His sexed up new album is the perfect fit for Pharrell, following in the steps of his most recent features ("Blurred Lines" and "Get Lucky"). This album marks a departure from his rapping days in the mid 2000's, and gives us a fresh new vibe.

"G I R L" was preceded by it's worldwide chart topping lead single "Happy" released on November 21st, 2013 and re-issued on December 16th, 2013. It has topped the chart in over 15 territories worldwide.

Through his new styling technique, Pharrell guides through a short and sweet journey (the album clocks in at around 48 minutes) with some extended sequences and a storm of pop artist guest spots from Justin Timberlake to Miley Cyrus and Daft Punk. Is short and sweet the way to go or has Pharrell overcooked his new album?--  Perhaps both.

1. "Marilyn Monroe"
Pharrell starts it off right with a stringed song that rings sex, desire and fun all at once. The song follows a movie or story style template with an extended interlude sequence as well as an intro and outro. While these elements are noteworthy, they give an over baked feel that doesn't settle well. This track is like an orange -- a dull and un-needed peel with juicy wedges of delight that unfortunately have bitter seeds stuck right in the middle; just like a Justin Timberlake track.

2. "Brand New (feat. Justin Timberlake)"
Following a great starter, Justin Timberlake shows up to vomit all over what could have easily been a 20/20 Experience reject. There's this echo involved in which both singers repeat lines from the track one after the another to eat up track time, which gets annoying. While it could be labeled a waste of 4 1/2 minutes that compares Justin's and Pharrell's falsetto vocals in a duel style way, it's perhaps a little more interesting than that. While its decent and except able, its a little runny and underdone.  In the end it looks very grim for both Pharrell and JT, but lucky for them everyone's going to eat this one up.

3. "Hunter"
Breathy vocals and a disco-y styled 70's remade beat encompass this track. While all of that is fresh and welcome, the lyrics found on this piece of pop/soul trash is infested with odd and seriously insulting phrases. While this song is easily going to stir up some controversy for some other reasons, its lowest point is found when Pharrell mentions Duck Dynasty. It's a mushy version of "Blurred Lines" that tries way too hard.

4. "Gush"
This heart thumping sex jam borders the edge of being except able but still marks a large improvement over perviously showcased track "Hunter". Pharrell's pantie scorching vocals go from clean to overly nasty in just seconds, making this both an interesting and evenly blended track that excites and delivers in an exceptional form.

5. "Happy"
By now nearly everyone knows about this track and can't help but sing along to its kid friendly yet still suggestive lyrics (even if they hate it). Mixing bubbling vocals with a fresh and bouncy backing beat, this track is the recipe for success. This slice of the album is sweet and very filling. Additionally, it's brilliant album positioning discourages fans from skipping over other album tracks and encourages sampling the rest of the album.

6. "Come Get It Bæ (feat. Miley Cyrus)"
Miley Cyrus features on this #BANGERZ influenced throw down of a track. Surrounded by stomps and shouts of "hey", this song has a country twist that surprisingly works somewhat well. Miley is very mellow on this track (which is very unusual) and delivers a limited role in this bridge track (links part 1 of the album to the 2nd half of the album).

7. "Gust of Wind (feat. Daft Punk)"
Much better than 2013's "Get Lucky", which famously ranked as one of 2013's worst tracks. Despite this, Daft Punk has very little to do with this track. I feel as if this track would have been much better without the quick feature from Daft Punk (which acts more as an afterthought due to the success of "Get Lucky" in 2013). Other than the slightly unpleasant synthesized part, this track is actually worth a listen.

8. "Lost Queen/Freq (feat. JoJo)"
This 8 minute track really needed to be split into two. Part one of this 20/20 Experience length track is titled "Lost Queen" and is very minimalistic and while it isn't quite as bad as a filler, it doesn't upgrade the quality of the album either.

The violent yet refreshing crashes of waves on a beach lead us into the hidden track "Freq", which features a small appearance from JoJo. On "Freq", Pharrell Williams croons alongside guest artist JoJo throughout the quick track, stating over and over "You gotta inward to experience the outer space that was built for you". While JoJo doesn't contribute much to the track, her breathy and polished vocals are layered behind Williams to give a little bit more energy to this quite simple song.

9. "Know Who You Are (feat. Alicia Keys)"
Alicia delivers a proper verse (the only guest artist to really do so) that is weaved throughout this latin flavored track. It's spicy, fresh, sweet and sensual rolled into one 4 minute sampler. Pharrell's and Alicia's vocals mesh together gracefully and are balanced and baked to perfection. It's nice to hear a proper collaboration and not a "collaboration" with a small layered section of guest pipes being copy and pasted behind Pharrell's vocals to smoothen the track (Miley Cyrus, Daft Punk, and JoJo are all briefly featured in their respected tracks; you almost can't tell that they are their). The only other collaboration that isn't ridiculously tiny is supplied by Justin Timberlake (on "Brand New"). This song has some serious potential and could possibly be released as a single in the future.

10. "It Girl"
The boil is coming to an end. Pharrell wraps up his latest effort with a final cry to get a woman by stating that she is "the it girl". While its not a bad track, it is more of an outro disguised as a regular, full length track. It features in the same style of lyrics that have been previously displayed, but they have been repackaged into a new appealing template. The last 2 and half minutes of this song features no vocals, just plain instrumentals, an odd way to end an album.

Overall View:
Most of the songs were styled the right way and fit the general theme of the album and the concept. Some of the songs felt rushed or overly simplified but most were still very worthy of applause. "Hunter" and "Lost Queen" were the clear duds of the album while "Marilyn Monroe", "Happy" and "Know Who You Are" were the highlights of the album. Pharrell proved he can produce a sexy album but he also showed that he couldn't make it perfect -- and that's fine because no one can. I was intrigued but a few songs fell a little flat and Pharrell (who is usually an expert collaborator) didn't handle his guest spots correctly and tried to outshine his featured guests (in most cases). That might be because this is his first album in 8 years and because he wanted it to be personal, but he nipped in the butt nevertheless. Also, stop making songs too short (2 minutes) or Justin Timberlake sized (5 1/2 minutes +).

It's a solid album and was on par with what I expected. Thanks for a memorable and fresh album. Good luck at the Academy Awards tonight!

Rating: 8/10 (B-)